I started with my MR2 in December '99. Its a 90 LTD with IIRC around the 120K on the clock? Bought it for $10K and change. I didnt like the old wheels so told them id only buy it if they fitted something better. got fitted with some 16x7s and heres a photo of it the first weekend i had it.
It wasnt going to take long for me to start modifying it...within a couple months i had
-Tinted windows
-lowered suspension with Koni springs
-Painted the side moulding
-Put in a new HU, amp, and front speakers
-Removed rear spoiler
-Painted the calipers..ahem..yellow
-new exhaust system
So, before i continue...i can already hear a dozen people crying into their keyboards begging me to have stopped playing with the car, but there is going to be (spoiler alert!!) MORE MODIFICATION! So, if you cant bare to look, click the back arrow now.
I put a full veilside bodykit with a toms snorkel on it. And i realise there are lots of people who dont like veilside etc, but the design of the veilside was cool in '2000 and does actually suit the shape of the car. I couldnt actually find any photos of mine with the kit on but it looked like this one,.almost exactly. I dont know whos this is and sorry if youre annoyed for showing it, but hey.
I got the whole car resprayed in standard paint color too.
After putting on the kit, i realised the wheels werent really doing it justice, so opted for some 18x8s, just need to push the rears out a bit with spacers but i'll do it one day.
Ive also relined the door trims, treadplate flooring, replaced the steering wheel, added gauges, installed subs, and too many other things to mention. But theyre all on my garage if you search it.
I started having problems with the veilside front. it just stuck forwards too far for driveways and such. It was a bad replica so caused the usual duckponds in the top and it was made of the cheap fibreglass. So in the end i opted for a border front made from FRP, from australia, which fitted a lot better.
I had always wanted the clear rear lights but all my searching had led to only 1 source, REV 6 in the U.K. They were taking pre orders for them, as they hadnt got them in just yet. I went in search of who their supplier was and discovered it was some outfit in the Netherlands. So i ordered in the "officially, first set of clear lights for the MK2" in New Zealand. But, came at a price of over $1000 once imported, duty, centre panel painted etc. I also got the front clear corners from the UK. Way cheaper than from here.
Then the NA wasnt enough for me, and having then turned 25, i could actually afford the insurance for a GT, so decided to do a conversion over selling it, as id done far too much to this car to start again. And besides a build would teach me a few things along the way, and i could have the parts i actually wanted, all the while knowing that the parts were new. Buying someone elses GT could have presented more failures, like the engine needing overhauling anyway.
And this was the biggest job ever. After the first mechanic didnt work out so well,..i took it in to Nostalgia motors who did an absolutely mammoth job of completely stripping the engine back to pieces and rebuilding it up again. I have just invoice after invoice of replaced screws, hoses, parts etc that they decided werent up to scratch..along with the new aftermarket parts id bought to go onto the car. The list of things done to the engine will take up far too much space, so i'll just say its a lot.
Nostalgia passed the car on to the tuners (a different place) When going in for tuning, they discovered they were having problems with it, and id had problems with how theyd treated the car too, so i took it back off them and eventually gave it to Te Rapa Automotive Repairs, who found the problem in less than 30 min, and finished tuning it...pretty well. It ended up with 217kw at only 9 psi boost. The low boost is due to me not having replaced the fuel system yet. Its on the to-do list, but doesnt bother me too much as the car is already more fun than the NA.
Theres been lots of little changes made to the interior and exterior, most of which the masses wouldnt care to read, but the latest venture was fun so i'll share that.
I decided to replace all the interior lights with LEDs, having tried the leds from Repco for the dash, and of course, as everyone reports, they create hotspots. Until Ricardo showed us that there are some different ones on the market, that have 5 LEDs in a cluster.. this got me interested again, and went the whole hog. Now i now theres going to be people who say, "Oh i hate red or blue or whatever" All of these lights come in about 6 different colors, so buy what ever color spins your wheels. Put a different color on each of the aircon buttons if you want.
the lights i ordered got here from the states in only 4 working days, not bad.... This first one is showing the key surround. Now its actually ultra violet
and in person it has a mean as purple/blacklight look to it, like the ones in a niteclub but for some reason the filter on the camera doesnt pick it up, it shows up blue, maybe something weird with photography in that ultraviolet doesnt show up in a photo... you can also see the dash ones came out pretty nice too, super bright and doesnt have any major hotspots, just a minor one
around the 20 and 40 of the speedo which can be seen in the second pic,
So, i also order LEDs for the two Neowedge bulbs in the aircon. they really didnt look good. I tried installing multiple LEDs but they blew of course, id need to alter all the resistors and crap so im not going down
that road. Then having a closer look at the website from the states, i see they make neowedge bulbs with different color glass. If id seen those before i wouldnt have gone for LED. I have looked around and
cant find anyone that does neowedge with colored glass. I decided to get the old neowedge bulbs i had originally, painted by a bulb specialist here, they did a good job but the old bulbs seem to have lost a bit of their strength. If i ever do another order, i'll make sure to also order some proper bulbs from them.So i'll call it a pass, but not 100% as theyre not as good as the dash. I pulled apart the aircon and changed all the little individual LEDs too. Shown here are the red ones.
Red for the ECON button when its selected, also for the REAR DEMISTER and also for when INTERNAL AIR CIRC is selected.
I chose blue for when AC is selected and also for when EXTERNAL AIR CIRC is selcted. Also all of the AIR SOURCE buttons come up blue, ive just shown the one here, but theve all been done. They are mega bright
and doing it again would get a lower MCD of LEDs as theyre actually a bit dominant during night driving. If they annoy me enough, i'll change them again.
I also replaced the hazard light to an LED, it was kinda dull before but has come up quite good now, so thats a good easy mod. I have also done the clock. It shows up well at night but is hard to see during the
day but that was also the case when it was green. I couldnt actually get the filter i wanted as they were out of stock, so i tried this one...The filter is not 100% transparent, its got a little diffusion to the plastic.
Im looking forward to when they get the one in i actually wanted, i think it will come up better again..but for now, its OK
Doing the door controls was fun. I had ordered second hand, a new door control from one of the club members to do this as the plastic surround for mine was damaged anyway. I think it may have been from a
GTS as the controls had no mirror retraction button and also ONLY had the auto light. The other two lights were missing. SO i had to do a little frankenstein surgery to create a hybrid and i think it came out well.
They are nice and bright and werent as hard to do as the surgery needed to marry up the two different controls.
And finally just a pic of the whole cabin. The A PILLAR GAUGES seem a bit off. During the day theyre good because my dash gauges are white and so are these but at night they are acutally red
with black lettering, the black lettering just didnt show up so well in photography. Im not sure if i can change the LEDs in my boost controller yet, havent looked into it yet.
So, im thinking that cars are actually a lot like plastic surgery. Sometimes youve got to have someone close to you to slap you and say...."STOP!"
But then again, some people just enjoy working on it...
) - Gen3 3S-GE powered and goin' strong 
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